Billionaire or Not: No Special Treatment

It rarely happens, but every now and then, a billionaire is told “no.”

This week the California Court of Appeals denied Broadcom billionaire Henry Nicholas‘ attempt to seal documents relating to his nasty eight-year long divorce.

“We reject Nicholas’s efforts to transform one of the initial trial judge’s prior sealing orders into a juridical black hole from which no light can ever escape,” writes Judge Richard M. Arison in his opinion.

Although many of the details have already been released, Nicholas has good reason not to want more of his dirty laundry aired in public. In court documents released briefly last year, Mrs. Nicholas alleged that her husband once threatened to have her “whacked.” She withdrew the claim later on, but she has also alleged that their children found cocaine in their home and that she once caught her husband with another woman in a Jacuzzi near their home. Nicholas has vehemently denied all accusations.

Still, this week’s defeat in court is minor compared to the legal troubles he was facing last year. Then, Nicholas was facing a potential lifetime in jail for 21 federal charges of options backdating and felony drug charges.

But life took a turn in December, when after years of asserting his innocence, Nicholas was finally vindicated. A judge dismissed the backdating charges on account of prosecutorial misconduct and a lack of evidence. Soon after, the drug charges were dropped, too. (See our interview with Nicholas as he prepared to defend himself, After the Fall).

Since then, Nicholas has spent much of his time under the radar, rebuilding his beaten up image while being active on myriad philanthropic activities and standing up for crime victims’ rights. It remains to be seen what other sordid details can possibly come back to haunt a man who’s been accused of building a sex lair underneath his home — a charge he also denied. Nicholas declined to comment for this post.

Although his divorce is final, the settlement is still in the works. As of our last estimate, Nicholas was worth $1.5 billion. This could change, however, as we crunch the numbers in preparation for this year’s Forbes 400.

In fact, depending on when his divorce finally comes to a close, if dictated by California community property law, which stipulates that all assets acquired during their marriage be split in half, Nicholas could ultimately drop off from the “billionaire club.”Henry Nicholas” class=”alignnone” width=”398″ height=”398″ />

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